Putting knobs on SDR radio is not hard if you know what you doing and have the incentive to do so. People like Flexradio dont want to do because of marketing reasons. If they really sat down and designed a front panel seriouslythey would not have to chop and change the design every 6 months. A well designed front panel with knobs could be used across a whole platform of different radios. You could get a return on your investment over many radio models.The Japanese manufacturers do this. If you study their circuit diagrams its the same electronics on different PCB's for different models. Its very rarely totally a 100% a new design.

I would not be giving up on knobbed radios yet. Its just that manufacturers just have a grip on or understanding of how to go about designing and utilizing the many available embedded industrial processors and systems that are readily available. I just bought a google nexus and I was thinking WOW what a fantastic front panel it would make. Its just so responsive and fast. If only I could just attach a USB cable and plug it into a K3 and P3. There we go knobbed SDR radio with touch screen and no PC!

I think I would wait until the TS-990 hits the streets before deciding between it and the FTdx-5000.

That's still a possibility considering I'm in no hurry to buy right away as I don't have an antenna at the moment. I'm going through the permitting process for a tower, so won't have anything up for at least another two months. By then the TS-990 may be out and I'll take a look at it.

I probably will still get the FTdx-5000, however, as I really like its ergo control layout and overall feel.

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